Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Final Project: Making a How-to Book
Activity #1: A good how-to book tells the reader how to do or make something. A how-to book includes four important things:
1. A list of materials you will need.
2. The steps you need to take to complete the task.
3. Sequence words like: First, Next, Then, Last and Finally.
4. A clear conclusion or product at the end.
*Let's take a look at this how-to about tying your shoes. Does it have a list of materials and the steps you need to take? Can you find the sequence words?
http://www.buddies.org/PacBeach/giggl14.html
Activity #2:
*Watch the how-to video about making silly puddy.
*Does it have both the list of materials and the steps we need to take?
*Raise your hand if you hear any sequence words.
*As a class, let's see if we follow the steps of this how-to if we can make our own silly puddy!
*As a class, let's see if we follow the steps of this how-to if we can make our own silly puddy!
(taken from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGJOx-TMDd0)
Activity #3: Homework/ Extra Credit
*With a parent or adult at home, take a look at these other silly how-to recipes and try them out.
Activity #4:
*In partners, make a list of ten things you know how to do or make.
*Think about your favorite idea that you could turn into your how-to book.
*When everyone is finished, we will make one large list for the whole class.
*Take a look at Ms. Smolin's list as an example.
Activity #5:
* Choose your favorite how-to topic from your list.
* On your how-to graphic organizer, write the materials you will need.
* Write the steps you need to take to complete the task. Use your sequence words!
* Take a look at what the draft should look like:
Activity #6: Revise
* In partners, take a look at each other's how-to drafts and help each other find mistakes. Pay special attention to spelling and punctuation.
Activity #7: Publish
* After the teacher gives you back your drafts with corrections, you may start your final copy using the blank books.
Rubric for final how-to book:
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Assignment #4
Directions:
1. Listen to the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
2. Listen carefully for important details in the story.
3. When you are finished listening, write about the important details of the story using the sequence words we have reviewed in class:
First
Then
Next
Finally
(While I will most likely not be able to use something like this at the beginning of the year with my first graders, I think this could be a great whole class listening exercise towards the end of the year.)
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
ESL Podcast Reviews
Here are some ESL podcasts that I found:
This website is put together by an organization entitled ESL POD. The target audience for the podcasts is definitely advanced adult students or seniors in high school. The topics discussed range from health care to college board exams and are probably used for students to self-study outside of an English class. The one I listened to had to do with the terminology of college entrance (terminology such as advanced placement, financial aid ,etc.) The speaker talked about these terms and how they relate to the students getting into colleges in the United States. I liked that the speaker was clear and paced. Also, the screen showed the advanced vocabulary that was used throughout the podcast so students could look up words that were still not clear. I would recommend this podcast to anyone teaching seniors in high school who are interested in higher education.
This podcasting resource is run by a site entitled a4esl.org. I wasn't able to find a bio attached to this site, but it does seem that they are based out of China. The site offers podcasts about current world events. The speakers seem to be young, around college age. The podcast I listened to was about the upcoming Olympics in Beijing. They also had podcasts about the G8 summit, financial news, etc. I think that these podcasts would be great to use in an advanced high school ESL class studying current events. They could be listened to as a whole class or for homework or independent study.
This ESL podcast link is run by the University of Languages and International Studies. The podcast that was featured was about comparative adjectives. The teacher on the recording would first state the grammatical rule and then give examples. The students have to interact with this podcast by repeating phrases. The teacher then led the students through some drills and exercises. While the explicit teaching of grammar is not something that many or us are charged with at our schools, if a high school student is taking the TOEFL exam, I would recommend this site. I think whoever is using the podcast would have to be at least advanced intermediate in order to understand the grammatical explanations that are given by the instructor.
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